INTERNATIONAL  LIBRARY,  issued  Monthly. 


Vol.  1.— No.  2. 


MAY,  1899. 


rue  Ofci  of  Itie  Lain  movement 


...BY... 

JOHANN  JACOBY 


Translated  by 

FLORENCE  KELLEY. 


NEW  YORK: 

Published   by  the  International  Publishing  Co., 

23  Duane  Street. 


INTERNATIONAL  LIBRARY. 


The  OKject  of  the  Labor  moment 

-— — "~~ BV 

JOHANN/JACOBY. 

Being  a  Speech  Delivered  Before  his  Constituency,  January  10, 1870. 

Translated  by 
FLORENCE  KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY. 


NEW  YORK: 

Published  by  the  INTERNATIONAL  PUBLISHING  Co., 
23  Duane  Street. 

1898. 


I? 


PREKACE. 


The  speech  herewith  placed  before  the  workers  of 
America  is  the  noteworthy  utterance  of  the  Konigsberg 
physician  and  noble  friend  of  the  working  class,  Dr. 
Johann  Jakoby,  a  democrat  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
a  warm  advocate  of  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  and 
of  the  improvement  of  their  condition.  Johann  Jakoby, 
following  the  democratic  thought  to  its  logical  conclu- 
sion, perceived  that  the  bearer  of  the  democratic  idea  in 
our  day  is  the  modern  social  democracy,  and  he  the 
most  eminent  of  his  party,  was  the  first  to  join  the  young 
Socialist  Labor  Party. 

In  America  the  old  Jefferson  democracy  perished  long 
ago,  and  with  it,  as  with  the  democracy  of  Jakoby,  the 
"democratic"  party  of  to-day  has  its  name  alone  in  com- 
mon, as  may  best  be  seen  from  the  phases  of  "develop- 
ment" through  which  the  "democratic"  party  has  passed, 
the  last  stage  included.  The  "democratic"  party,  after 
being  the  pro-slavery  party,  passed  through  a  phase  in 
which  it  differed  from  its  "republican*'  rival  only  in  repre- 
senting Free  Trade  as  opposed  to  Protection.  Then,  the 
Tariff  question,  ceasing  to  serve  as  an  issue,  and  the  old 
parties  only  surviving  to  divide  the  spoils  (to  the  shame 
not  alone  of  the  "democratic"  party,  be  it  said),  a  presi- 
dential election  became  possible  which  turned  not  upon 
party  platforms,  but  upon  the  relative  decency  of  two 
candidates.  The  rise  of  the  United  Labor  Party  at  the 


November  election  of  1886,  which  has  been  rightly  char- 
acterized as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  American  poli- 
tics, lent  the  "democrats"  a  passing  raison  d'  etre  as 
"saviors  of  society/'  representing  neither  platforms  nor 
decency,  but  the  great  "principle"  of  "Patriotism."  And 
the  fusion  of  the  two  old  parties  for  the  furtherance  of 
this  "principle"  is  only  a  question  of  time.  Already  dur- 
ing the  campaign  of  the  past  autumn,  naively  upright 
"democrats"  who  take  "Society  Saving"  seriously, 
showered  bitter  reproaches  upon  the  "republicans"  for 
their  "unpatriotic"  action  in  nominating  separate  candi- 
dates. And  the  complete  fusion  of  the  "democrats"  with 
their  kindred  spirits,  the  "republicans,"  will  be  delayed 
so  long  only  as  each  of  the  old  parties  may  still  hope  to 
"save"  something  for  itself.  Meanwhile  the  general  sav- 
ing of  society  is  not  lost  sight  of,  and  bills  are  pending  in 
Congress  to  provide  for  the  more  effective  establishment 
of  the  militia,  a  point  which  we  shall  touch  upon  later. 

One  pre-eminently  democratic  quality  our  party, 
with  this  glorious  record,  unmistakably  possesses,  to  do  it 
justice,  far  beyond  all  true  democracy,  namely  a  colossal 
respect  for  popular  majorities.  A  majority  it  must  have 
at  all  costs,  and,  since  it  would  have  hard  work  to  con- 
vince one,  it  buys  its  majority  wherever  it  can.  Accord- 
ingly, bribes  proving  unavailing  among  the  masses  of 
workers,  now  awakening  to  a  consciousness  of  their  class 
interests,  we  behold  the  spectacle  of  these  worthy  "demo- 
crats" and  "patriots"  buying  among  the  tenement-house 
populations  of  our  great  cities  that  popular  majority 
which  they  so  greatly  respect.  For  the  purchase  of  a 
majority  no  sacrifice  of  money  is  too  great,  and  every  fair- 


minded  person  must  admit  that  this  is  the  heaviest  sacri- 
fice which  a  party  can  make  that  represents  only  the  inter- 
ests of  that  class  whose  domination  in  State  and  society 
rests  solely  upon  its  possessions.  Thus  do  our  "patriots" 
sacrifice  that  which  in  their  eyes  is  most  sacred.  It  is, 
however,  a  sacrifice  that  brings  its  own  reward. 

In  spite  of  all  this  decay  and  corruption  within  the  old 
parties,  the  spirit  and  traditions  of  the  Jeffersonian 
Democracy  still  live  in  a  considerable  part  of  the  Laboring 
Class;  and  we  see  here  among  us,  in  the  person  of  Henry 
George,  a  man  who  is  following  in  the  path  of  Jakoby, 
and,  as  an  upright  Democrat,  has  placed  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  Laboring  Class.  If  he  follows  to  the  end  the 
path  he  has  entered,  as  we  do  not  doubt  he  will  do,  he  is, 
we  believe,  destined  to  play  an  honorable  part  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Labor  Movement  in  America.  His  ex- 
clusive demand  for  the  nationalization  of  the  land  is 
totally  insufficient  for  any  society  which  rests  upon  the 
capitalist  method  of  production,  least  of  all  for  the  coun- 
try of  the  industrial  proletariat  par  excellence.  If  Henry 
George  extends  his  demand  to  cover  the  demand  for  the 
socialization  of  all  the  means  of  production,  the  demand 
which,  after  all,  forms  the  kernel  of  the  Labor  Question, 
that  is  to  say,  if  he  places  himself  upon  the  standpoint  of 
modern  Scientific  Socialism,  then  only  can  he  become  a 
true  representative  of  the  workers;  for  then  he  will  ex- 
press the  actual  interests  of  the  Laboring  Class.  Other- 
wise he  will  be  condemned  to  be  a  mere  leader  of  a  sect, 
instead  of  representing  a  mighty  and  decisive  Labor 
Movement  which,  once  awakened  to  class-consciousness, 
is  being  driven  by  the  logic  of  events  to  modern  socialism, 


6 

and  cannot  possibly  stop  with  the  land  question.  We  say 
stop  with  the  land  question  because  the  modern  Labor 
Movement  embraces  the  land  question  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

The  noble-hearted  Johann  Jakoby  arrived  at  his  Social- 
ist position,  thanks  to  his  high  intelligence  and,  one 
might  almost  say,  to  his  healthy  instinct,  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  backward  economic  condition  of 
Germany  in  his  day  and  the  consequent  far  from  con- 
spicuous class  antagonisms. 

Wholly  different  is  the  position  of  Henry  George. 
This  can  be  clear  and  well  considered  to  its  utmost  con- 
sequences. He  has  the  good  fortune  to  live  and  work  in  a 
country  which  is  economically  and  politically  perhaps  the 
most  advanced;  in  which  the  antagonism  of  the  classes  is 
glaring,  blurred  by  no  mediaeval  social  traditions,  such  as 
are  so  frequent  even  in  the  most  advanced  States  of  the 
Old  World  where  the  so-called  middle  parties  base  their 
existence  upon  them. 

Here,  no  one  who  has  eyes  for  the  reality  can  fail  to 
recognize  the  comparatively  small  class  of  capitalists, 
mighty  by  reason  of  their  possessions;  and  face  to  face 
with  it,  separated  by  diametrically  opposed  interests,  by  a 
gulf  that  can  neither  be  bridged  over  nor  filled  up  with 
specious  phrases  of  harmony,  the  Laboring  Class. 

Another  factor  must  be  especially  emphasized  which  is 
of  eminent  importance,  namely,  the  possibility  of  clear  in- 
sight into  the  economic  process  going  on  about  us  and  a 
true  comprehension  of  it,  i.  e.,  scientific  enlightenment 
such  as  exists  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  more  progres- 
sive proletarian  movements  of  Europe  and  in  an  especially 


high  degree  among  our  German  brothers,  who  can  already 
point  to  a  brilliant  political  Past. 

Our  young  Labor  Party  is  now  on  the  way  towards  be- 
coming a  great  political  party.,  and  its  next  task,  as  it  has 
itself  recognized,  is  the  work  of  consolidation  in  a  national 
Party.  With  its  growth  and  the  simultaneous  increase  in 
political  influence,  the  need  of  that  enlightenment  which 
is  now  naturally  wanting,  will  become  more  urgent,  in 
order  that  the  Labor  Party  may  press  with  full  intelli- 
gence towards  the  attainment  of  its  main  object,  the  polit- 
ical and  economic  emancipation  of  the  Laboring  Class. 

The  labor  question  has  left  the  phase  of  Utopian  plans 
far  behind  it.  It  has  become  a  science,  among  whose 
chief  representatives,,  recognized  as  founders  of  Modern 
Scientific  Socialism,  are  Karl  Marx  and  his  life-long 
friend  and  co-worker,  Frederick  Engels.  The  funda- 
mental works  upon  Socialism,  Marx's  Capital  and  Engels' 
Condition  of  the  \Yorking  Class  in  England,  have  been 
made  accessible  in  translations  to  English-reading 
workers. 

To  return  to  the  accompanying  pamphlet.  There  are 
two  points  in  which  Socialists  to-day  will  not  agree  with 
the  author  as  to  the  means  by  which  the  object  of  the 
Labor  Movement  is  to  be  attained. 

Socialists  differ  from  Jakoby  in  his  estimate  of  profit- 
sharing,  finding  it  a  measure  irrational  in  theory,  and  re- 
actionary in  its  practical  working,  a  trick  of  the  employer 
to  divert  the  attention  of  the  workers  from  their  class 
interests. 

All  profit  is  produced  by  labor,  is  in  the  ultimate  analy- 
sis unpaid  labor.  The  workers'  share  would,  therefore, 


8 

naturally  be  the  whole  of  the  profit.  But  under  our  pres- 
ent system  the  workmen  have  no  claim  upon  any  part  of 
it.  The  whole  belongs  legally  to  the  capitalist.,  and  the 
workers  cannot  well  find  any  logical  argument  for  claim- 
ing a  part  of  what  is  rightfully  theirs  and  legally  an- 
other's. If  they  insist  upon  having  the  whole  of  what  is 
their  own,  they  insist  upon  the  Social  Revolution,  for  no 
measure  less  radical  can  secure  it  for  them.  But  if  they 
consent  to  be  bought  off  by  their  plunderers  with  a  share 
of  the  booty,  they  assume  a  position  which  is  not  con- 
ducive to  the  speedy  abolition  of  legalized  robbery. 

In  practice  profit  sharing  has  been  characterized  as  em- 
bodying the  principle  of  the  fly  on  the  window  pane, 
which,  being  close  to  the  eye,  shut  out  the  view  of  the 
dome  of  St.  Peter's.  For  profit-sharing  has  been  found 
by  shrewd  employers  to  occupy  the  minds  of  workers  with 
petty  economies  and  with  watching  each  other  in  order 
to  insure  the  largest  possible  "share"  to  the  exclusion  of 
larger  considerations  of  class  interest.  That  this  is  the 
real  object  of  the  arrangement  is  indicated  by  two  facts. 
It  is  in  the  employing  class,  and  not  in  the  working  class, 
that  profit-sharing  finds  its  apostles,  and  this  is  an  unfail- 
ing danger  signal.  And,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  adopt- 
ed chiefly  by  a  certain  class  of  employers,  to  whom  it 
offers  especial  advantages  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
The  most  powerful  monopolies  do  not  share  their  profits 
with  their  employees  because  they  do  not  especially  need 
to  attach  the  '"hands"  to  the  "concern."  Employers  of 
labor  upon  a  small  scale  cannot  as  a  rule  share  profits  with 
their  employees,  their  margin  is  too  small.  It  is  the  mid- 
dle class  of  employers  who,  hard-pressed  to  fight  the  large 


9 

Capitalists  on  the  one  hand  and  the  labor  organizations 
on  the  other,  are  thankful  to  buy  peace  with  their  own 
employees  upon  such  favorable  terms  as  profit-sharing 
offers. 

Socialists,  therefore,  do  not  recommend  profit-sharing. 
If  enlightened  workers  accept  it  when  offered,  they  are 
not  thereby  blinded;  they  know  that  profit-sharing  bears 
no  criticism  from  an  economic  standpoint,  but  would,  if 
disinterested,  be  mere  philanthropy;  they  know  that  there 
is  no  standard  by  which  the  workers'  share  can  be  deter- 
mined, and  they  fully  understand  that  the  trifling  in- 
crease in  their  annual  income  is  merely  the  price  which 
employers  gladly  pay  for  decided  advantages  obtained  in 
the  economy  and  intensity  of  the  labor  thus  paid  for  and 
in  immunity  from  strikes.  But  Socialists  do  not,  with 
Jakoby,  recognize  profit-sharing  as  a  means  to  a  peaceful 
solution  of  the  labor  question. 

The  second  point  upon  which  the  Socialists  will  not 
agree  with  Jakoby  is  his  assumption  of  the  possibility  of 
effort  for  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  Labor  Question  on  the 
part  of  the  State  and  the  Capitalist  class. 

The  individual  employer  who  could  recognize  his  em- 
ployee "as  his  own  equal  and  treat  him  accordingly," 
gives  place  more  and  more  to  the  corporation  "with  no- 
body to  be  kicked  and  no  soul  to  be  damned."  And  it 
were  folly,  indeed  to  look  to  the  capitalist  corporations  of 
America  to  promote  the  transition  to  the  Socialist  system. 
That  would  be  asking  them  to  commit  suicide. 

Moreover,  the  State  becomes  year  by  year  more  com- 
pletely the  property,  the  willing  tool,  of  these  same  cor- 
porations, and  less  capable  of  action  in  the  interest  of  the 


io 

people.  Such  slender  concessions  as  it  makes  in  the  di- 
rection of  protecting  and  advancing  the  interests  of  the 
working  class  are  made  in  answer  to  the  demands  of  Labor 
organized  so  powerfully  that  its  demand  is  a  threat.  And 
so  far  as  it  dares,  the  State  of  to-day  renders  illusory  the 
trifles  that  it  yields  If  we  pass  in  review  the  demands 
which  Johann  Jakoby  makes  of  the  State,  we  find  that, 
here  in  America,  when  the  Government  yielded  to  the 
demand  for  the  eight-hour  working  day  for  its  employees, 
the  enforcement  of  the  law  remained  practically  nil.  In 
the  separate  States  the  eight-hour  law,  wherever  passed, 
is  either  a  dead  letter  or  vitiated  in  the  first  place  by  the 
private  contract  clause.  The  prohibition  of  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  though  in 
some  States  enacted,  is  generally  evaded  for  want  of  ade- 
quate inspection  by  men  and  women  appointed  from  the 
working  class,  or  of  that  indispensable  accompaniment  of 
such  a  prohibition,  sufficient  school  accommodation  and 
an  efficiently  enforced  compulsory  law.  A  graduated  in- 
come tax  could  be  imposed  by  the  Government  only  under 
the  stress  of  the  civil  war,  and  the  State  was  the  far-too- 
humble  servant  of  its  plutocratic  owners  to  attempt  strin- 
gent enforcement.  Instead  of  universal  compulsory 
military  training,  we  find  the  irresponsible  mercenaries 
of  the  great  corporations,  the  Pinkerton  armed  detective 
force,  growing  in  recklessness  from  year  to  year,  while  the 
militia,  once  meant  to  serve  the  ends  indicated  by  Jakoby, 
has  been  perverted,  corrupted  and  hedged  about  with 
costly  conditions,  until,  to-day,  it  bears  the  character  of  a 
bourgeois  volunteer  reinforcement  of  the  regular  army, 
maintained  by  the  State  for  the  support  of  the  capital- 


11 

ists  in  the  suppression  of  lawful  protests  of  the  proletariat. 
It  is  evident  that  all  hope  of  help  towards  the  peaceful 
solution  of  the  labor  question  by  the  capitalist  class  and 
the  State  is  illusory.  The  transition  from  the  Wage- 
System  to  the  Socialistic  organization  of  society  is  going 
on  around  us,  and  its  peaceful  consummation  clearly  rests 
with  the  Working  Class.  The  clearer  the  insight  of  the 
workers,  the  speedier  and  more  peaceful  the  change. 
"In  proportion  as  the  proletariat  absorbs  socialistic  and 
communistic  elements,  will  the  Revolution  diminish  in 

bloodshed,  revenge  and  savagery." 

F.  K.  W. 


13 


THE  OBJECT  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT. 


FELOW  CITIZENS  AND  FRIENDS: 

Permit  me  to-day  to  make  the  Labor  Movement,  the 
so-called  Social  Question,  the  subject  of  my  remarks.  In 
view  of  the  close  connection  between  the  political  and  the 
social  conditions  of  a  nation,  every  constituent  has  a  well- 
founded  right  to  demand  of  his  representative  a  social 
confession  of  faith  besides  his  political  one.  I  shall  en- 
deavor to  meet  this  demand  with  the  utmost  frankness. 

One  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  antiquity,  Aristotle,  di- 
vides the  whole  human  race  into  two  classes,  free  men  and 
slave  natures.  The  Greeks,  he  declares,  are  appointed  by 
reason  of  their  free  nature,  to  rule  over  other  peoples. 
The  barbarous  races,  on  the  contrary,  are  fitted  for  being 
ruled  and  performing  the  services  of  slaves.  But  slavery 
and  slave-labor,  he  explains  as  a  social  necessity,  as  the  in- 
dispensable material  foundation  of  State  and  Society;  for 
if  the  free  citizens  were  obliged  to  do  the  work  required 
for  their  maintenance,  how  could  they  have  the  time  and 
the  wish  to  cultivate  their  intelligence  and  attend  to  the 
affairs  of  the  State  ?  And  yet,  Aristotle  makes  a  remark- 
able observation  as  to  the  conceivableness  of  a  society 
without  slavery.  If,  he  says,  an  inanimate  object,  a  tool, 
an  implement,  could  render  the  service  of  the  slave,  if 
every  instrument  could  perform  its  function  at  command, 


14 

or,  still  better,  without  even  a  command,  as  the  old  tradi- 
tion relates  of  the  statues  of  Daedalus,  and  Homer  sings 
of  the  three-legged  table  of  Hephaestus,  which  entered  the 
halls  of  the  gods  of  its  own  motion;  if  the  looms  could 
weave  and  t-he  zither  produce  its  tones  spontaneously, 
then  the  artificers  would  need  no  helpers  and  the  masters 
no  slaves. 

Now,  every  one  knows  that  the  miracle  here  sketched 
has  to  a  great  extent  been  wrought,  and  that  without  the 
help  or  intervention  of  the  gods,  in  the  most  natural  way 
in  the  world,  by  insight  into  the  laws  of  nature  and  mas- 
tery of  its  forces.  What  once  seemed  impossible  to  the 
wisest  of  the  Greeks  happens  daily  before  our  eyes.  But 
how  has  the  miracle  worked?  Has  the  success  which  Aris- 
totle supposed,  attended  it?  Experience  teaches  that  the 
wealth  of  nations  has  been  immeasurably  increased  by  the 
magnificent  mechanical  appliances  of  our  time.  Yet,  the 
toilsome,  anxious  lot  of  the  laboring  class  has  been  any- 
thing but  lightened. 

Now,  let  us  carry  this  dream  of  Aristotle  farther  in  the 
light  of  actual  experience.  Let  us  assume  that  in  the  re- 
mote future  of  the  human  race  the  soil  of  the  whole  earth 
had  passed  into  the  hands  of  individual  owners,  and  man 
had  attained,  by  the  progress  of  knowledge,  to  the  abso- 
lute control  over  Nature.  Suppose  the  perfection  of 
mechanical  contrivance  to  have  gone  so  far  that  machin- 
ery itself  is  produced  and  tended  by  machinery ,  and 
human  labor  is  thus  minimized,  if  not  superseded.  What 
would  be  the  result  of  such  a  state  of  things?  In  conse- 
quence of  the  .attractive  power  which  large  capital  exer- 
cises upon  small,  a  comparatively  small  number  of 


15 

wealthy  persons  would  hold  exclusive  possession  of  all 
machinery  and  other  implements  of  labor.  The  whole 
income  of  the  nation,  all  the  goods  requisite  for  the  neces- 
sities and  enjoyments  of  life  would  fall  to  these  few  alone 
and  that  rightfully  according  to  the  views  now  current. 

Under  such  circumstances,  human  labor  being  wholly 
valueless,  what  would  become  of  the  non-possessing  mass 
if  the  capitalists  did  not  furnish  them  the  bread  of 
charity?  What  else  would  remain  to  these  unfortunates 
than  to  die  of  starvation  or  to  reverse  the  existing  con- 
ditions of  production  and  possession  if  not  by  cunning, 
then  by  force. 

It  will  be  said  that  this  picture  is  merely  a  horrible 
fancy,  that  such  a  state  of  things  can  never  be  reached. 
This  I  admit,  not  because  the  thing  itself  is  inconceivable, 
but  because  sane  men  and  women  will  never  let  it 
go  -so  far.  But  can  we  deny  that  our  present  social  life, 
founded  upon  Capitalist  rule  and  Wage-Labor,  moves  in 
a  direction  which,  if  it  should  continue  unchanged,  must 
bring  us  with  every  passing  day  nearer  to  the  social  condi- 
tions just  depicted?  Must  we  not  admit  that  even  now, 
the  income  of  the  nation  is  distributed  in  a  manner  which 
subjects  at  least  a  part  of  the  proletariat  to  the  want  just 
described? 

In  such  a  state  of  affairs  it  becomes  the  duty  of  every 
good  and  thoughtful  human  being  to  ask  himself  the 
question: 

"How  are  the  present  economic  and  social  conditions 
to  be  so  changed  as  to  attain  an  equitable  distribution  of 
the  income  of  the  people  and  to  lessen  the  daily  increas- 
ing poverty  of  the  workers?" 


16 

Let  us  examine  more  closely  the  problem  that  is  to  be 
solved. 

Two  cardinal  features  characterize  our  present  methods 
of  production,  and  distinguish  them  from  those  of  the 
past,  namely,  wages  labor  and  production  upon  a  large 
scale. 

Whereas,  formerly,  productive  labor  was  chiefly  per- 
formed by  slaves,  serfs  or  bondsmen,  all  rights  of  owner- 
ship in  human  beings  ceased  to  exist  at  the  French  Revo- 
lution. Rightfully,  legally,  every  worker  is  free  and  his 
own  master.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  is  anything  else 
rather  than  free.  Cut  off  from  the  means  and  conditions 
of  employment,  with  no  other  possession  than  his  labor 
power,  he  is  forced  to  work  for  wages  in  the  employ  of 
others  and  for  wages  which  suffice  at  the  utmost  for  the 
bare  necessities  of  life.  But  if  he  finds  no  purchaser  for 
the  only  commodity  at  his  command,  for  his  force  of 
labor,  he  and  his  fall  into  the  utmost  misery.  Yet,  de- 
spite this  wretched  insecurity  of  his  position,  it  will  hardly 
occur  to  any  workman  to  wish  the  old  conditions  back. 
It  is  a  life  worthy  of  man  that  he  strives  for,  and  he  knows 
that  this  can  be  attained  only  in  a  state  of  freedom. 

As  the  French  Revolution  proclaimed  the  workers  per- 
sonally free,  so  did  it  liberate  inanimate  property  from  the 
last  shackles  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Without  reference  to 
previous  restrictions  and  obligations,  whoever  was  in  pos- 
session at  the  moment,  found  his  right  to  the  absolute 
control  of  his  property  recognized.  This  release  of  prop- 
erty, the  application  of  steam  power  which  followed  soon 
after,  and  the  general  introduction  of  machine  work  pro- 


17 

duced  a  mighty  and  far-reaching  transformation  in  the 
existing  economic  and  social  conditions. 

Handicraft  and  trade  upon  a  small  scale  were  ever  more 
crowded  into  the  background;  production  by  wholesale, 
the  capitalistic  method  of  production,  took  their  place. 
But  precarious  as  this  change  has  rendered  the  lot  of  the 
handicraftsman  without  means,  and  the  small  retail  deal- 
er, the  advantages  for  the  development  of  civilization  con- 
nected with  production  and  distribution  upon  a  large 
scale  are  too  weighty  for  Society  ever  to  renounce  them. 
A  general  return  to  production  on  a  small  scale  by  handi- 
craft is  as  impossible  as  a  return  to  slavery. 

We  must,  therefore,  limit  the  question  under  considera- 
tion as  follows:  How  can  a  more  equal  distribution  of  the 
national  income  in  the  interest  of  all  be  attained  without 
limiting  freedom  of  labor,  and  without  interfering  with 
the  progress  of  civilization  won  by  production  on  a  large 
scale? 

The  answer  cannot  be  doubtful,  for  us  at  least.  There 
is  but  one  means  to  that  end:  ABOLITION  of  the 
WAGE-SYSTEM,  and  the  substitution  for  it  of  Co-oper- 
ative Labor. 

Whoever  has  an  open  eye  for  the  signs  of  the  times 
must  recognize  that  this  thought  more  or  less  clearly  for- 
mulated forms  the  basis  of  the  Labor  Movement  now 
making  itself  felt  in  every  country  in  Europe.  As  slavery 
and  serfdom,  once  a  "necessary"  social  institution  also, 
at  last  made  way  for  Wage-Labor,  so  in  our  day  there  is 
coming  about  a  similar  change  of  no  less  importance,  the 
transition  from  the  Wage-System  to  free  Co-operative 
work.  The  important  point  is  that  the  transition  should 


18 

take  place  in  the  most  peaceful  way.  But  this  is  only 
possible  on  condition  of  the  harmonious  activity  of  all  the 
social  forces  concerned. 

The  question  which  occupies  our  attention  should, 
therefore,  finally  be  formulated  thus: 

What  has  the  workman,  what  has  the  capitalist  em- 
ployer, and  what  has  the  State  to  do  to  further  the  transi- 
tion already  begun  to  the  co-operative  method  of  pro- 
duction, and  to  bring  this  change  to  its  consummation  in 
the  way  most  advantageous  to  the  community? 

We  shall  see  that  to  answer  this  question  we  need  do  no 
more  than  collate  the  facts  before  our  eyes,  a  clear  proof 
that  the  present  age  is  in  the  midst  of  the  process  of  social 
remodelling. 

First,  as  to  the  workers  themselves.  The  main  point  is 
that  they  become  clearly  conscious  of  their  own  situation 
and  that  they  recognize  and  respect  their  own  inherent 
nobler  nature. 

I  have  stated  in  the  foregoing  that,  as  a  rule,  the  work- 
er's wages  barely  suffice  for  scanty  maintenance  for  him- 
self and  his  family.  If  any  one  doubts  this  relation,  the 
so-called  iron  law  of  wages,  let  him  refer  to  the  testimony 
recently  given  by  the  Committee  of  the  German  Board  of 
Trade  in  an  opinion  upon  the  seizure  of  wages. 

There  he  will  find,  word  for  word,  this  statement: 

"We  cannot  let  pass  without  qualification  the  assertion 
that  there  is  a  considerable  difference  between  the 
laborer's  wages  and  the  means  of  subsistence  requisite  for 
his  scant  maintenance.  It  is  exactly  this  point,  the  rate  of 
wages,  upon  which  practically  the  whole  great  social  ques- 
tion turns.  The  workingmen  insist  upon  the  insuffi- 


19 

ciency  of  the  wages  rate.  The  employers  do  not  deny 
this,  but  explain  the  rate  of  wages  as  a  link  in  the  chain  of 
economic  phenomena  which  they  cannot  arbitrarily 
change  (under  the  pressure  of  the  market  in  the  midst  of 
which  they  themselves  stand)  without  destroying  the 
whole  chain.  So  long  as  this  controversy  is  not  settled, 
and  we  fear  it  is  an  everlasting  one  (sic),  so  long  shall  we 
be  obliged  to  maintain  the  opinion  as  the  only  correct  one, 
that  the  expressions  'wages  of  labor'  and  '  necessary  means 
of  subsistence'. are  in  general  identical.'' 

The  "indestructible  chain  of  economic  phenomena!" 
Indeed  a  more  striking  expression  could  not  have  been 
found!  True,  the  capitalist  rulers  of  labor  are  not  pre- 
vented by  it  from  heaping  capital  upon  capital,  but 
heavily  does  the  "chain  of  economic  phenomena"  press 
upon  the  laboring  class.  Yet,  even  here  the  poet's  word 
proves  true : 

"There  dwelleth  a  spirit  of  Good  in  all  Evil." 

The  ruling  industrial  system,  by  making  indispensable 
the  assemblage  of  masses  of  workers  at  one  point,  gives 
the  first  impulse  to  the  removal  of  the  evil  itself  has 
created.  As  man  first  sees  his  own  features  in  the  mirror, 
so  the  laborer  first  awakens  to  a  full  appreciation  of  his 
own  pitiable  situation  when,  in  the  misery  of  masses  of 
his  comrades  in  suffering  the  image  of  his  own  lot  stares 
him  in  the  face.  Sharing  the  life  of  his  companions  in 
toil,  men  placed  like  himself  and  equally  oppressed,  in 
constant  contact  and  interchange  of  thought  with  them, 
working  together  for  reciprocal  support  and  the  com- 
mon defense  against  common  danger,  there  arises  a  class 


20 

consciousness  which  sustains  and  elevates  the  individual 
and  inspires  the  masses  to  battle  for  their  social  rights. 
It  is  a  strange  fate  which  decrees  that  Capitalist  produc- 
tion itself  shall  assemble  and  drill  the  powers  destined  to 
make  an  end  of  capitalist  and  class  rule. 

From  the  great  central  rallying  places  of  industry  the 
Labor  Movement  has  proceeded,  which,  within  a  few  de- 
cades, has  spread  from  England  over  France,  Belgium, 
Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  has  attained  power  and 
definite  form  in  the  foundation  of  the  International 
Workingmen's  Association.  Everywhere  we  see  unions 
forming  whose  object  is  the  improvement  of  the  material 
condition  of  the  laboring  class;  craftsmen's  guilds  and 
workingmen's  clubs,  educational  and  beneficial  associa- 
tions, co-operative,  loan  and  credit  societies,  trades  unions 
and  co-operative  manufacturing  companies.  Under  the 
prevailing  conditions  of  credit  and  production  all  these 
undertakings,  originating  in  the  working  class  and  rest- 
ing upon  the  principle  of  self-help  must  prove  powerless 
to  cure  the  misery  of  the  masses.  But  they  have  accom- 
plished a  vast  work  for  the  intellectual  and  moral  eleva- 
tion of  the  laboring  class  and  in  paving  the  way  for  a 
thorough  reform  of  labor.  The  true  significance  of  these 
associations,  their  value,  which  cannot  be  overestimated, 
lies  in  this,  that,  wholly  apart  from  the  especial  object  at 
which  they  aim,  they  are  a  school  for  self-culture  for  their 
members;  that  they  confer  upon  them  skill  in  the  inde- 
pendent management  of  their  own  affairs  and  in  har- 
monious action  with  others  for  common  ends;  that,  by 
education,  promotion  of  a  comprehension  of  business  and 
fraternal  public  spirit,  they  prepare  the  worker  for  a 


21 

gradual  transition  from  the  prevailing  Wage- System  to 
the  co-operative  method  of  production  of  the  future. 

It  was  the  spirit  of  co-operation  which,  in  the  Middle 
Ages  raised  the  working  middle  class  to  so  high  a  level  of 
culture  and  proeperitv.  of  power  and  consequence.  The 
re-awakening  of  the  spirit  of  co-operation  in  our  day  will 
hear  similar  and  still  more  precious  fruit,  not  for  one  class 
alone,  but  for  the  whole  human  society.  The  labor  ques- 
tion as  we  apprehend  it,  is  no  mere  stomach  and  money 
question;  it  is  a  question  of  Civilization,  Justice  and 
Humanity.  When  our  saving  of  State  and  Society,  the 
"glorious"  achievements  of  our  policy  of  blood  and  iron, 
like  a  lost  tradition,  shall  long  have  been  forgotten,  it  will 
be  remembered  to  the  credit  of  our  time  that  it  quickened 
and  cherished  the  spirit  of  co-operation,  the  germ  of 
human  greatness  and  virtue  in  the  laboring  world,  so  lay- 
ing the  foundation  for  a  new  and  truly  moral  social  life, 
which  shall  rest  upon  the  principle  of  equality  and  frater- 
nity. The  founding  of  the  smallest  workingmen's  club 
will  be  for  the  historian  of  Civilization  of  greater  worth 
than — the  victory  of  Sadowa. 

Let  us  pass  to  the  second  question: 

What  has  the  employer  to  do? 

The  demand  that  we  make  of  him  is  simply  this,  that 
he  respect  in  every  worker  the  human  being,  that  he 
recognize  the  laborer  whom  he  employs  as  a  being  fully 
his  own  equal,  and  that  he  treat  him  accordingly. 

Everything,  they  say,  has  two  sides.  In  this  every- 
day saying  lurks  a  good  piece  of  popular  wisdom; — the 
most  difficult  problems  of  knowledge,  as  of  life,  find  their 
solution  in  it.  Like  everything  else,  man  has  two  sides, 


a  personal  one,  peculiar  to  himself  as  an  individual,  and 
a  universal  one  which  marks  him  as  a  member  of  a  greater 
whole.     In  reality,  the  two  sides  can  neither  be  separated 
nor  sharply  distinguished,  for  it  is  the  two  taken  together 
which,  in  their  unity,  make  the  man.     But  in  our  con- 
sciousness temporarily  or  permanently  one  side  or  the 
other  can  very  well  press  into  the  foreground  and  assert 
a  predominant  influence  upon  our  thought  and  action. 
Let  us  assume  the  case  that  the  special,  individual  side 
predominates  in  a   man's  character.     It  would  find  ex- 
pression primarily  in  his  estimate  of  himself,  as  self-con- 
sciousness, self-confidence.    "Help  yourself."    "Hercules 
helps  him  who  helps  himself/'  becomes  such  a  man's 
maxim,  the  rule  of  his  thought  and  action.     If  he  retains 
the  consciousness  of  the  other  universal  side  of  his  nature, 
not  losing  sight  of  the  connection  between  himself  and 
his  fellow  men,  he  will  admit  that  his  own  powers  do  not 
suffice  to  obtain  him,  by  his  personal  effort  alone,  a  sub- 
sistence worthy  of  a  human  being;  that  man  can  live  and 
prosper  only  in  society,  that  brotherly  co-operation  with 
others,  therefore,  lies  in  his  own  interest.     Respect  for 
others,  sympathy  and  public  spirit  will  hold  his  self -con- 
sciousness and  self-confidence  properly  in  check.     Quite 
otherwise  if  the  consciousness  of  self  gets  the  upper  hand 
in  a  man.     True,  the  insufficiency  of  his  own  unaided 
powers  cannot  escape  even  then,  for  the  consciousness  of 
the  broad  universal  side  cannot  be  wholly  suppressed. 
But  the  conclusion  which  he  draws  from  it  is  in  this  case 
different,  he  will  regard  others,  not  as  his  equals,  not  as 
equal  members  of  a  great  whole,  of  which  he,  too,  forms 
a  part,  but  as  subservient  to  himself,  mere  tools  for  satis- 


fying  his  needs  and  gratifying  his  desires.  Thus  the  con- 
sciousness of  self,  praiseworthy  enough  in  its  place,  de- 
teriorates into  selfishness,  and  self-consciousness  into 
conceit.  Selfishness,  pretension  and  the  desire  to  rule 
tempt  him  to  make  his  fellow  men  serve  his  own  will,  all 
that  he  believes  to  be  for  his  own  advantage. 

What  is  here  said  of  the  individual  applies  to  the  whole 
community.  The  same  powers  which  are  active  in  the 
mind  of  the  individual  make  themselves  felt  in  the  life 
of  peoples,  in  the  history  of  the  human  race. 

The  power  of  man  over  man,  the  right  of  the  strong 
and  the  oppression  of  the  weak,  that  is  the  characteristic 
feature,  the  scarlet  thread  that  is  woven  into  the  history 
of  antiquity  and  of  the  Middle  Ages.  And  is  it  other- 
wise now? 

Does  not  the  order  of  society  to-day  rest,  in  spite  of  the 
much-praised  progress  of  Civilization,  upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  human  subservience?  Has  the  Present  a  right 
to  look  back  into  the  conditions  of  heathen  antiquity  and 
of  the  Christian  Middle  Ages  with  pride  and  self-satisfac- 
tion? 

With  a  frankness  which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  a 
statesman  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Count  Joseph  de 
Maistre,  has  expressed  himself,  literally,  thus: 

"The  human  race  was  created  for  the  benefit  of  a  few 
men.  It  is  the  business  of  the  clergy,  the  aristocracy,  and 
the  higher  officers  of  the  State  to  teach  the  people  what 
is  good  or  bad,  true  or  false  in  the  worlds  of  morals  and 
intellect.  Other  persons  have  no  right  to  dispute  about 
such  matters,  they  must  endure  without  murmuring." 

If  this  is  rather  highly-colored,  the  picture  is  none 


24 

the  less  drawn  from  nature.  So  long  as  the  shepherds  of 
the  nations  go  to  war  without  saying  "by  your  leave"  to 
the  people,  so  long  as  ecclesiastics  come  together  in  coun- 
cil and  synod  "To  judge  false  human  science  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Holy  Ghost/'  so  long  we  have  no  right  to 
accuse  de  Maistre  of  falsehood.  But  wrong  and  incom- 
prehensible it  is  that  de  Maistre  approves  this  state  of 
things,  that  he  dreams  such  conditions  can  and  will  en- 
dure for  all  time. 

Let  me  produce  another  witness: 

Robert  Owen,  the  founder  of  the  co-operative  system  in 
England,  once  met  in  the  house  of  a  Frankfort  banker, 
Friedrich  von  Gentz,  the  well-konwn  statesman.  Owen 
set  forth  the  excellence  of  his  socialistic  system,  and  ob- 
served : 

"If  only  unity  could  replace  disunion,  all  men  would 
have  enough  to  live  upon." 

"That  may  be  true,"  replied  von  Gentz,  "but  we  do  not 
wish  the  masses  to  be  prosperous  and  independent  of  us, 
for  how  could  we  then  continue  to  govern?" 

There  we  have  the  whole  Social  Question  of  the  present 
in  a  nutshell!  If  Owen  speaks  the  word  of  deliverance, 
the  Unity  of  Mankind,  Gentz  proclaims  the  fundamental 
evil  that  stands  in  the  way  of  redemption:  the  love  of 
power  of  the  more  favored  classes.  Aristotle  also  divided 
mankind,  it  will  be  remembered,  into  two  classes,  such  as 
are  destined  to  command,  and  such  as  are  born  to  serve. 
But  it  was  difference  of  nationality,  as  between  Greeks 
and  Barbarians,  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of  his  dis- 
tinction Gentz  and  de  Maistre,  on  the  contrary,  draw  a 
dividing  line  within  the  same  race,  between  the  upper  ten 


25 

thousand  who  are  ordained  to  rule  and  prosper,  and  the 
remaining  masses  destined  to  be  governed  and  to 
languish. 

Whether  we  examine  the  state  of  the  Church,  the  State 
or  Society  everywhere — we  cannot  ignore  it — we  meet 
with  the  class  rule  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  mediasval  sys- 
tem of  guardianship.  In  one  point  only  does  the  Present 
differ  from  the  Past,  namely  that,  thanks  to  the  German 
Reformation  and  the  French  Revolution,  the  conviction 
gains  ground  from  day  to  day  in  ever-widening  circles 
down  to  the  lowest  strata,  that  it  cannot  go  on  so  forever, 
that  men  are  not  created  to  be  ruled  and  governed,  held 
in  leading  strings  and  oppressed  by  their  fellow-men.  For 
thousands  of  years  love  of  one's  neighbor  and  the  fellow- 
ship of  man  have  been  preached  to  the  people.  The 
present  demands  that  in  every  deed,  in  daily  life,  in  the 
State  and  Society,  this  teaching  be  applied  in  earnest. 

There  was  a  time — the  older  men  among  you  remem- 
ber it — when  everyone  who  doubted  the  right  of  absolute 
government  was  branded  a  rebel.  To-day  a  similar  fate 
is  the  lot  of  everyone  who  ventures  to  lay  hands  upon  the 
"chain  of  economic  phenomena."  Do  but  venture  to 
attack  the  privileges  of  the  possessing  class,  the  abuse  of 
power  by  Capital,  the  prevailing  credit  and  loan  system, 
or  even  to  broach  a  more  even  distribution  of  material 
goods,  and  you  are  in  certain  circles  branded  forthwith  as 
the  enemy  of  all  social  order,  a  social  heretic,  a  Commun- 
ist. But  this  shall  not  deter  me  from  recognizing  freely 
and  publicly  that  all  individual  property,  material  not 
less  than  intellectual,  is  the  common  good  of  society. 
Like  man  himself,  every  form  of  the  property  of  man 


26 

possesses,  besides  its  special  character  which  makes  it  the 
private  possession  of  an  individual,  a  universal  side  which 
gives  the  community  a  well-grounded  claim  to  a  right  to 
it.  That  the  State  and  the  municipality  appropriate  a 
part  of  the  property  of  every  citizen  as  taxes  we  all  con- 
consider  a  matter  of  course,  or  that  the  law  limits  the  free 
control  of  the  individual's  property.  But,  we  ask,  has 
the  property-holder  no  other  duties  than  those  which  the 
law  of  the  land  prescribes,  and,  in  case  of  need,  compels 
him  to  fulfill  ?  Has  he  not  duties  to  society  as  well  as  to 
the  family,  the  municipality,  the  commonwealth?  What 
the  individual  calls  his  own,  whether  of  real  or  personal 
property,  is  it,  can  it  be  solely  the  product  of  his  own 
activity?  Does  he  not  owe  by  far  the  greater  part  of  it 
to  the  co-operation  of  others,  to  the  social  labor,  the  labor 
in  common,  of  the  people  who  have  lived  before  him,  and 
of  his  contemporaries?  And,  as  the  individual  attains 
possession  of  property  only  by  means  of  the  help  of  others, 
so  he  cannot  enjoy  its  fruits  without  the  help  of  others. 
Only  in  society  has  property  value,  only  in  society  can  men 
rejoice  in  it.  Hence  the  moral  obligation  of  every  owner 
of  property  so  to  use  his  fortune  that  it  may  be  of  use,  not 
to  himself  alone,  but  to  the  community  as  well,  especially 
to  those  of  his  fellow  men  who  are  less  favorably  placed 
than  himself. 

The  grand  Labor  Movement  of  the  last  forty  years  has 
had  a  wholesome  effect  in  this  respect.  As  it  has 
awakened  in  the  workman  the  consciousness  of  his  social 
rights,  so  it  has  sharpened  in  the  possessing  class  the  sense 
of  social  duty. 

We  are  glad  to  admit  that  there  are  employers  for 


whom  the  laborer  is  not  a  commodity  which  one  buys  as 
cheaply  as  possible,  like  every  other  commodity,  to  make 
the  most  of  the  use  of  it.  In  England,  France,  and  even 
with  us  in  Germany,  there  is  no  lack  of  individual  ex- 
amples of  mill-owners,  business  men  and  landlords  who 
endeavor  to  improve  the  sad  lot  of  their  employees 
through  increase  in  wages^  or  shortening  the  hours  of 
labor,  the  foundation  of  savings-banks,  beneficial  societies 
and  insurance  for  old  age,  or  by  the  erection  of  healthful 
dwellings,  asylums,  hospitals,  educational  institutions, 
and  other  means.  Especially  worthy  of  notice  in  this 
respect  is  the  system  of  profit-sharing,  according  to  which 
the  workman  receives,  besides  his  wages,  a  regular  share 
of  the  profit  obtained  by  his  labor.  In  England  alone 
there  are  some  ten  thousand  workmen  who  hold  this 
relation  to  their  employer,  and  both  sides  have  reason  to 
be  content  with  their  success.  Yet,  we  must  not  overlook 
the  fact  that  here  everything  depends  more  or  less  upon 
the  good  will  of  the  employer,  and  that  in  the  best  case 
certain  workingmen  or  groups  of  workingmen  only  are 
benefited  by  it.  Valuable  as  such  humane  endeavors 
are  as  educational  preparation  for  the  removal  of  the 
social  wretchedness  which  has  arisen  out  of  the  wages 
system,  they  are  as  little  adequate  as  the  workmen's 
attempt  at  self-help.  That  great  task  requires  another 
power,  capable  of  taking  general  and  radical  measures. 
And  this  brings  us  to  the  third  question: 

What  has  the  State  to  do  to  bring  about  a  peaceful  solu- 
tion of  the  Labor  Question? 

The  new  constitution  of  the  Canton  Zurich  adopted 
April  18th,  1869,  answers  our  question  as  follows: 


28 

Art.  23.  "The  State  promotes  and  facilitates  the  de- 
velopment of  the  co-operative  system,  based  upon  self- 
help.  It  enacts  through  its  law-giving  power  the  pro- 
visions requisite  for  the  protection  of  the  workers." 

Art.  24.  "It  creates,  for  the  furtherance  of  the  gener- 
al credit,  a  Cantonal  bank." 

The  original  wording  of  the  articles  was  still  more  pre- 
cise. It  was  as  follows:  Art.  23.  "It  is  the  duty  of  the 
State  to  protect  and  advance  the  welfare  of  the  working 
class  and  the  development  of  the  co-operative  system." 

Art.  24.     (As  above.) 

Protection,  Advancement — in  these  two  words  the 
object  of  the  great  co-operative  body  which  we  call  the 
State  is  sharply  and  clearly  formulated.  But  how  are 
protection  by  the  State  and  advancement  by  the  State  to 
be  understood?  The  despot  calls  himself  shield  and  pro- 
tector of  the  people,  and  war  is  praised  as  a  means  of  pro- 
moting civilization.  Vera  rerum  vocabula  amissimus, 
the  right  names  of  things  are  lost  to  us.  The  more  need 
then  to  specify  the  sense  in  which  the  terms  are  here  used. 

"Protection  by  the  State"  means  the  duty  of  the  whole 
body  of  persons  assembled  and  united  into  a  State  to  pro- 
tect each  individual  in  the  free  development  and  employ- 
ment of  his  power  so  far  as  the  like  freedom  of  others  is 
not  thereby  interfered  with. 

But  with  mere  protection  the  duty  of  the  State  is  not 
exhausted,  however  much  the  politician  may  prefer  to 
limit  it  thereto.  The  reciprocal  advancement  of  the 
members  of  the  State  must  be  added. 

Under  advancement  by  the  State  we  understand  the 
duty  of  the  whole  community  to  step  in  with  its  means 


29 

whenever  the  welfare  of  the  individual  does  not  suffice 
to  obtain  him  a  life  worthy  of  a  human  being. 

As  protection  by  the  State  corresponds  to  the  principle 
of  Liberty,  and  Advancement  by  the  State  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  Fraternity,  so  the  assurance  of  protection  and 
advancement  to  all,  "to  each  according  to  his  need," 
meets  the  demand  of  Equality. 

This  doctrine  of  the  object  of  the  State  is  quite  the 
same  as  that  which  I  expressed  on  a  former  occasion  in  the 
formula : 

Each  for  all — is  human  Duty! 
All  for  each — is  human  Right; 

"But,"  some  one  may  object,  "if  protection  and  advance- 
ment by  the  State  are  to  be  afforded  to  all  equally,  why  is 
the  working  class  especially  emphasized  in  the  article  of 
the  Zurich  constitution?  Is  the  working  class  to  be  espe- 
cially favored  by  the  State,  advanced  at  the  cost  of 
the  others?" 

Reasonable  as  this  objection  at  first  sounds,  it  does  not 
bear  scrutiny. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  equality  of  all  consists 
solely  in  every  man's  being  protected  and  helped  "accord- 
ing to  his  need";  and  who  can  deny  that  at  this  time  it  is 
precisely  the  wage-worker  who  most  needs  protection  and 
help? 

But  wholly  apart  from  this  greater  need,  there  is  an- 
other circumstance  which,  for  the  Present  and  the  imme- 
diate Future,  makes  an  especial  consideration  of  the  work- 
ing class  by  the  State  a  demand  of  reparative  justice. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  call  to  mind  the  genesis  of  what 
is  commonly  called  capital  to  make  this  perfectly  clear. 


30 

However  the  definitions  of  capital  may  differ,  in  this  they 
all  agree,  that  it  is  accumulated  labor,  applicable  to  fur- 
ther productive  ends.  But  who  has  performed  this  labor? 
They,  perhaps,  who  now  control  capital!  Does  the  manu- 
facturer, the  merchant,  the  landlord,  owe  his  wealth  of 
accumulated  labor  to  his  own  activity  and  the  industry  of 
his  ancestors?  Is  the  want  of  capital,  the  poverty  of  the 
toiling  proletarians  solely  due  to  their  own  and  their 
fathers'  fault  ?  But  if  the  present  inequality  of  fortune  is 
not  solely  due  to  the  economically  correct  action  of  the 
property-holding  class  and  the  shiftlessness  of  the  non- 
possessing  class,  to  what  other  cause  can  it  be  attributed? 
Whence  comes  it  that  Capital  concentrates  more  and 
more  in  the  hands  of  the  small  minority,  while  the  mass 
of  wage-laborers,  despite  their  industry,  can  scarcely  sat- 
isfy their  barest  needs?  The  reason  for  this  can  evi- 
dently be' found  nowhere  else  than  in  a  distribution  of  the 
product  of  labor  disproportionate  to  the  labor  performed, 
and,  therefore,  unjust. 

We  shall  not  investigate  the  chain  of  historical  condi- 
tions in  consequence  of  which  the  workman  was  gradually 
separated  from  the  means  of  production  and  the  present 
disproportion  between  work  and  wages  brought  about. 
The  question  now  is: 

What  has  the  State  done  to  bring  about  a  more  just 
distribution  of  the  product  of  labor?  Has  it  made  any 
attempt,  by  legislation  or  otherwise,  to  protect  the  work- 
ingman  against  the  superior  power  of  capital,  or  to  set 
a  limit  to  the  social  inequality  that  is  growing  from  day 
to  day? 

Whoever  scrutinizes  the  history  of  the  nations  down  to 


31 

the  present  day  will  find  that  in  this  direction  practically 
nothing  has  been  done. 

Nobility,  clergy  and  the  higher  dignitaries  of  State 
have  separately  and  together  exercised  an  almost  exclusive 
control  in  public  affairs;  they  have  not  hesitated  to  turn 
to  account  for  themselves  and  their  own  interests  power 
and  wealth  from  which  all  should  have  profited  equally. 
Legislation  itself,  far  from  distributing  air  and  sunshine 
equitably  in  the  economic  race,  has  contributed  its  large 
share  by  conferring  privileges  on  the  one  hand  and  inter- 
fering with  liberty  on  the  other,  to  widen  and  deepen  the 
chasm  between  the  property-holding  and  the  non-possess- 
ing classes. 

How  then  can  any  one  blame  the  men  of  toil,  if,  having 
awakened  to  the  consciousness  of  their  rights  and  their 
power,  they  demand  from  the  State  a  very  special  con- 
sideration of  their  so  long  neglected  interests?  -When,  in 
the  article  of  the  Zurich  Constitution,  State  protection 
and  State  help  is  especially  promised  to  the  workers,  there 
is  involved  in  this  no  infringement  upon  the  principle  of 
equality.  There  is  no  question,  as  some  anxious  souls 
fear,  of  feeding  the  poor  workingman  at  the  cost  of  the 
rich  citizen;  still  less  of  forming  a  privileged  class  of 
workingmen,  stipendiaries  of  the  government.  It  is 
simply  the  frank  and  honorably  outspoken  recognition 
by  the  law-givers  of  the  State's  duty  to  do  that  which  has 
been  left  undone  and  to  expiate  injustice  committed,  so 
righting  the  social  wrong  for  which  the  State  is,  in  part, 
responsible.  It  is  only  the  wished-for  fulfillment  of  that 
which  we  have  called  the  demand  for  reconci Hating  and 
reparative  justice, 


32 

But  the  Zurich  Constitution  does  not  stop  with  the 
recognition  of  the  duty  and  responsibility  of  the  State  in 
general;  it  specifies  in  precise  terms  the  means  by  which 
alone  the  working  class  can  now  be  helped: 

"The  development  of  co-operation  based  upon  self-help 
shall  be  promoted  and  assisted." 

The  ultimate  object  of  this  process  of  development  is: 
The  abolition  of  wages-labor  by  the  gradual  transition 
from  the  wages  system  to  that  of  co-operative  labor. 

Let  us  glance  now  in  detail  at  the  demands  to  be  made 
of  the  State,  i.  e.,  the  whole  community  of  individuals. 

First  comes  unrestricted  freedom  of  opinion  and  the 
right  to  organize  and  hold  meetings  at  will.  The  repeal 
of  all  laws  framed  for  the  purpose  of  limiting  or,  as  the 
phrase  goes,  "regulating77  liberty.  Next,  equal  right  of 
participation  in  public  affairs  for  all,  universal,  direct 
suffrage  and  its  corollary,  universal  direct  participation  of 
the  people  in  legislation  and  administration.  Further, 
free  compulsory  education  in  public  secular  institutions 
and  the  introduction  of  universal  compulsory  military 
training  in  place  of  standing  army  and  militia.  These 
two  demands  we  combine  because  public  instruction  and 
the  people's  power  of  defense  are  more  closely  connected. 
For  the  conduct  of  war  the  primary  need  is  money  and 
efficient  soldiers;  both  are  secured  by  efficient  schools. 
The  wealth  of  a  country  depends  upon  the  successful 
labor  of  its  inhabitants,  but  work  is  the  more  successful 
the  better  the  workman  can  calculate  the  success  of  what 
he  undertakes,  that  is,  the  more  intelligent  he  is.  And 
the  soldier,  like  the  workman,  will  be  more  skillful  in  the 
performance  of  his  task,  the  defense  of  his  country.  With 


33 

us  in  Germany,  as  in  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe, 
nearly  half  of  the  nation's  income  is  spent  in  preparation 
for  war,  while  education  and  culture  are  put  off  with  sums 
scarcely  worth  mentioning.  Let  us  reverse  the  propor- 
tion and  the  people's  wealth  will  multiply  ten-fold  with- 
out injury  to  our  power  of  defense.  A  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation who  understands  his  business  is  the  best  Minister 
of  Finance  and  War. 

For  the  working  class  especially,  and  that  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  Commonwealth,  we  demand: 

SHORTENED  HOURS  OF  LABOR  AND  A  LEGAL 
WORKING  DAY. 

The  wage-worker,  too,  must  have  time  and  leisure  "to 
cultivate  his  intelligence  and  attend  to  the  .affairs  of 
State."  The  Congress  of  English  Trades  Unions,  held 
last  year  in  Birmingham,  recommended  an  eight- 
hour  working  day  for  all  trades,  and  expressed  its  con- 
viction that  by  this  means  "the  physical  and  mental 
power  of  the  workers  will  be  increased  and  morality  pro- 
moted and  the  number  of  the  unemployed  diminished." 

Prohibition  of  the  employment  of  Children  and  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  for  Men  and  Women. 

Both  are  necessary  to  prevent  the  further  sinking  of 
wages  and  to  save  the  rising  generation  from  deteriora- 
tion. 

Abolition  of  indirect  Taxes  and  introduction  of  a  Pro- 
gressive Income  Tax. 

Every  tax  upon  necessaries  of  life  is  a  tax  upon  the 


34 

worker's  force  of  labor,  hence  a  restriction  upon  produc- 
tion and  an  injury  to  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

Finally:  Reform  of  the  Money  and  Credit  System,  and 
promotion  of  Industrial  and  Agricultural  Productive 
Co-operative  Associations  by  the  Intervention  of  State 
Credit  or  State  Guaranty. 

The  point  is  to  make  credit  accessible  to  the  working 
class.  This  the  State  has  done  in  most  generous  measure 
both  directly  and  indirectly  for  the  promotion  of  the  capi- 
talistic method  of  production.  Let  the  State  now  in  its 
own  interest  do  the  same  for  the  co-operative  associations 
of  the  workers.  Nothing  is  more  advantageous  to  the 
Commonwealth  than  justice  in  all  things. 

So  much  for  the  preliminary  conditions  of  labor  re- 
form. The  workingmen  have  been  advised,  perhaps 
honestly  enough,  to  keep  out  of  politics  and  busy  them- 
selves solely  with  their  economic  interests,  as  if  political 
and  economic  interests  could  be  separated,  as  kindlings 
are  split,  with  a  hatchet.  Whoever  has  followed  our  line 
of  reasoning  thus  far,  cannot,  I  think,  be  in  doubt  that 
precisely  the  working  class  must  first  of  all  and  most  of 
all  resolve  to  transform  political  conditions  in  the  direc- 
tion of  freedom.  State-help  no  less  than  self-help  is 
needed  for  securing  to  the  worker  the  full,  undimin- 
ished  result  of  his  industry,  that  is,  an  existence  worthy  of 
a  man. 

The  State  alone,  and  only  a  free  State,  will  help  the 
workers! 

Let  us  sum  up  briefly  the  substance  of  the  foregoing: 

The  system  of  wages-labor  meets  the  demands  of  Jus- 
lice  and  Humanity  as  little  as  did  the  slavery  and  servi- 


35 

tude  of  former  times.  Like  slavery  and  servitude,  wages- 
labor  was  once  a  step  forward  in  civilization  from  which 
undeniable  advantages  have  accrued  to  society. 

The  social  question  of  the  Present  is  how  to  abolish 
the  wages  system  without  losing  the  advantages  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution  en  gros  by  means  of  associated 
labor. 

To  this  end  there  is  but  one  means,  the  system  of  free, 
associated  labor,  the  co-operative  system.  The  Present  is 
a  time  of  transition  from  the  wages  system  (capitalistic 
method  of  production)  to  the  system  of  Associated  Labor. 

In  order  to  secure  a  peaceful  transition,  the  worker, 
the  employer  and  the  State  must  work  together: 

It  is  the  part  of  the  workers  to  offer  united  resistance 
to  the  pressure  of  capitalistic  rule,  and  by  self -culture  to 
prepare  themselves  for  independence. 

It  is  the  part  of  the  employer  to  concern  himself  for  the 
welfare  of  the  workers,  and  especially  to  yield  them  a 
share  of  the  profits. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  promote  the  efforts  of  the 
workers  for  self-culture  by  promoting  their  organization, 
determining  a  legal  working  day  and  affording  adequate 
opportunity  for  free  instruction.  It  is  the  further  duty 
of  the  State  to  assist  the  development  of  the  co-operative 
system  by  reform  of  the  bank  and  credit  system,  and  by 
affording  to  co-operative  effort  the  support  of  State 
credit. 

Such  help  being  possible  only  on  the  part  of  a  free 
State,  it  follows  that  all  workers,  and  all  friends  of  the 
workers,  must  aim  primarily  at  establishing  true  freedom 
within  the  State.  Political  and  social  freedom,  freedom 


36 

of  the  citizen  without  the  sacrifice  of  the  majority  of  man- 
kind as  wage-slaves;  this  is  the  task  of  our  century.  The 
achievements  of  the  policy  of  blood  and  iron,  the  clang  of 
arms  in  these,  our  days,  the  chase  and  struggle  for  wealth 
and  sensual  enjoyment,  these  are  but  ripples  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  stream  of  the  spirit  of  our  time.  In  the 
depths,  still  but  ceaseless,  is  the  forward  movement  of  our 
knowledge  of  nature  and  of  mind,  and  with  this  con- 
sciousness of  the  sovereignty  of  man,  that  thought  which 
moves  the  world,  the  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity  of  all. 
Though  years  may  pass  in  vain,  the  word  of  the  Scripture 
shall  yet  be  fulfilled,  the  joyful  message  which  the  electric 
wire  sped  as  its  first  greeting  from  free  America  to 
Europe,  still  armed  to  the  teeth : 

"Peace  on  Earth;  Good  Will  to  Men!" 


THE  END. 


*'Empty  thy  purse  Inlo  thy  head.' *— Shakespeare. 

J.  A.   Way  land. 

So  many  billions  of  people  have  dumbly  stumbled  their 
way  through  this  brief  span — existing,  without  that  intel- 
lectual grasp  of  things  that' makes  life  a  pleasure. 

Ignorant,  prejudiced,  earth's  teeming  millions  have  come 
and  gone,  denying  themselves  the  profit  of  a  well  stored 
mind,  for  the  petty  pleasures  of  a  passing  hour. 

Then,  they  laid  down  the  life  which  was  a  burden — 
which  should  have  been  a  joy  —  much  the  same  as  the 
patient  oxen  haxe  quit  the  scene.  Intelligence  need  not 
be  bought  at  a  sacrifice  in  these  times. 

The  Appeal  to  Reason 

in  answer  to  the  requirement  for  a  new  economic  condition, 
has  printed  and  circulated  over  9,000,000  copies,  while 
the  total  number  of  all  papers  issued  by  J.  A.  Wayland 
(editor  of  the  APPEAL)  explaining  the  only  theory  that 
will  abolish  poverty,  amounts  to  over  18,200,000  copies. 
Besides  this  over  100  tons  of  books  have  been  sold.  That 
means  that  some  people  understand  Socialism  whether 
you  do  or  not. 

If  it  is  to  your  advantage,  you  want  to  know  it. 

If  it  is  not,  it  won't  hurt  you  to  know  it  anyway. 

The  APPEAL  is  printed  weekly,  without  advertising,  and 
costs  50  cents  per  year  or  15  cents  for  three  months. 
It  is  probably  worth  your  while  to  read  it  if  you  wish 
to  be  considered  well  posted  on  all  political  movements. 
Postage  stamps  taken. 

Address  APPEAL  TO  REASON. 

Girard,  Kansas. 
High  commission  paid  good  agents. 


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